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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22885093">vilified</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballerinaroy/pseuds/ballerinaroy'>ballerinaroy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>together or not at all [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:34:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,056</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22885093</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballerinaroy/pseuds/ballerinaroy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Perhaps they should have never come home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Harry Potter/Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>together or not at all [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632493</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>185</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>vilified</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22867489/comments/283255213">this</a> and <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22442983/comments/277907443">this</a> comment(s) from <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/penholder/pseuds/penholder">penholder</a> and <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinaChar22/pseuds/MinaChar22">MinaChar22.</a></p><p class="p1"> </p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">She’d seen the newspaper articles. It was impossible not to. Fifteen and stringing two men along. Twenty and accused of the same crime. A scarlet woman, unable to be satiated. Playing with the hearts of two noble men. The heroine turned whore.</p><p class="p1">No matter how much Ron and Harry had tried to protect her, shield her she’d seen it. The photo, of her on the beach, sandwiched between them, topless. ‘Saved’ only by Ron’s hand covering one nipple and Harry’s head shielding the other. It was her, the press decided, who had caused the scandal. Her wanton desires.</p><p class="p1">It had ruined the last week of their vacation and followed her back home. Into her department, into her work. The cause she’d been working tirelessly on even before graduation. Werewolf rights. A popular cause due to all those families who Greyback had rampaged. A call for wolfsbane to be readily available. Guidelines and legislation for how to accommodate someone afflicted in the workplace. All that work, all of the late nights at the office, subjecting Ron to wand light when he was trying to sleep so she could finish another book. All for a good cause, and now…</p><p class="p1">“I understand.”</p><p class="p1">There was nothing else to be said, no arguments to be made. The work was still good, still making important changes, lives were being saved. Just without her name tainting it.</p><p class="p1">So she’d handed over her research, all of those meticulous handwritten notes, her collection of books and interviews. Everything she’d been working on and walked away.</p><p class="p1">The disappointment weighed heavily on her as she packed up her desk. The ruse that they’d reassigned her to the annex so she wouldn’t be disturbed was of little consequence to her. They hadn’t fired her, but simply didn’t want her seen. Hermione Granger. The <em>former</em> heroine of the wizarding world.</p><p class="p1">“I think I’ll work from home this afternoon,” she said once she’d finished transferring her new belongings.</p><p class="p1">“Alright then,” her supervisor said, a strained smile on her face. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”</p><p class="p1">She fled, hiding behind a large scroll and ignoring the trail of whispers left in her wake. All that work, all the time she’d spent proving herself. A reputation she would have to re-earn but would never be the same.</p><p class="p1">Hermione walked through the door of their flat, boxes yet to be unpacked stacked all around and tried to convince herself she only needed a good cry and then she’d be up for it. But as she sank down onto the couch, her throat aching at the act of keeping it together for so long, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was worth it. Being apart of a world that hated her.</p><p class="p1">An hour passed, or perhaps two of her in that same position, a blanket cocooned around her as she let out all of the emotions she’d been trying to hide. Hermione barely heard the door opening and rushed into the bathroom, met with a splotchy face, swollen and clear that she’d been sobbing.</p><p class="p1">“Hermione?” came the knock at the door. “Are you alright?”</p><p class="p1">“Fine,” she chocked out but knew it wasn’t very convincing.</p><p class="p1">Ron sighed, and there was a soft thump. She imagined him laying his head against the door. “Bad day?”</p><p class="p1">“Yeah,” she managed with a sniffle. “You?”</p><p class="p1">“Yeah,” he answered in the same flat tone.</p><p class="p1">It was silly, she knew, to talk through a door but she couldn't bring herself to face him as she tried to make sense of her swollen eyes.</p><p class="p1">“They reassigned us,” Ron told her. “Harry got put on administrative duty. For running off without notice.”</p><p class="p1">“And you?”</p><p class="p1">“Azkaban patrols,” Ron answered and she let out a long, pained breath.</p><p class="p1">They were being vilified too. With careful, slow motions she finished washing her face and unlocked the door. Ron stood there, a miserable look on his face.</p><p class="p1">“I’m so sorry,” she told him.</p><p class="p1">“It’s alright,” he managed, voice strained. “At least it’s not-“</p><p class="p1">“Don’t you dare say at least it’s not Harry,” she said sternly. “You don’t deserve that either.”</p><p class="p1">He closed his mouth, nodding and she wrapped her arms around him, holding him as tightly as he was her.</p><p class="p1">“They took my name off it,” Hermione whispered, tears welling up in her eyes again. “All of it, took it away, told me to find something new.”</p><p class="p1">He knew at once, understood. “I’m so sorry,” Ron murmured in her ear.</p><p class="p1">She had always known the wizarding world was cruel, judgmental. From the moment she’d entered it she’d fought against the notions that her upbringing made her something less. But this somehow was worse. A punishment for something she was meant to control.</p><p class="p1">“Did we make a mistake?” Hermione whispered, unable to stop the thought from spilling from her lips.</p><p class="p1">She felt Ron tense. “What?”</p><p class="p1">Hermione looked up and understood what he had heard. Doubt about them, about the relationship she didn’t hold an ounce of regret for pursuing.</p><p class="p1">“Coming back,” she clarified. </p><p class="p1">First her mother, now this. They’d only been home a week and each day felt like a new battle. Fighting to be apart of a world that was doing their best to shun them.</p><p class="p1">“I don’t know,” Ron muttered, shaking his head. “It’s not everyone. It’s just…”</p><p class="p1">“Enough of them,” Hermione finished. Ron nodded.</p><p class="p1">“There’s other jobs, you know,” Ron told her. “Other things you could be doing.”</p><p class="p1">“I could say the same to you.”</p><p class="p1">“Azkaban will be temporary,” Ron told her. “Robards, he doesn’t care. Just until he can find me someone new to work with. But I’m not going to stand by and let you be miserable, not for a choice I made.”</p><p class="p1">“It’s a choice we made,” Hermione said, stepping back. “You don’t think that you drug me along kicking and screaming did you?”</p><p class="p1">“Well of course not, when have you ever done anything you haven’t wanted to?”</p><p class="p1">“Exactly,” she said pointedly.</p><p class="p1">He smiled, reaching out and brushing back the wet hair from her face, cupping her cheek and she nuzzled into his palm.</p><p class="p1">“I knew that things would be hard coming back,” Hermione said quietly. “I just didn’t think it would be so bad all at once.”</p><p class="p1">“Yeah,” Ron agreed and she fell back into him, breathing in the smell of home, of her heart. “We’ll get through this. We always do.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="https://ballerinaroy.tumblr.com/">Follow me on Tumblr? </a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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